Should I Die Before I Wake
by ColorfulAlgebra
Summary: Should Takao die before he wakes, he’d like you to know some things that tied him to that one painful prayer. Oneshot. Yaoi mentions. Character death. M for safety.


Title: Should I Die Before I Wake

Author: Pentagramy

Pairings: KaixTakao implied

Warnings: Yaoi implied, character death, a slither of AU.

Disclaimer: As much as I would love to lay claim to Beyblade, I don't have the papers. And I'm kinda scared of working with devils. (lawyers) So I don't own anything.

Note:

Summary: Should Takao die before he wakes, he'd like you to know some things that tied him to that one painful prayer. One-shot. Yaoi mentions. Character death.

* * *

**Should I Die Before I Wake…**

_Now I lay me down to sleep,  
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  
If I should die before I wake,  
I pray the Lord my soul to take._

Takao never realized the strength to these words until years after he'd learned them. He was a Russian orphan at one point—something he never told anybody. He didn't know his mother because, well, she gave him up at sight. He didn't know Hiro's father because, well, they weren't biologically full brothers. They were half.

In the orphanage, one child would sing in English. It was haunting, drawn out, beautiful. He almost cried the first time he heard it. Oh, oh, he was thinking as he stole a loaf of bread. Hiro will be happy. Upon slipping back into the orphanage grounds, he heard the song.

The girl, the odd one, with long black hair and dead brown eyes was singing as she left the orphanage, her pale, white lips moving. "Now I lay me down to sleep… I pray the Lord my soul to keep… If I should die before I wake…" Her eyes made a connection with his pair of stormy blues. "I pray the Lord my soul to take."

He cried at first, and dropped the loaf of bread from his grimy hands into the falling snow. Later, he made a joke with his partner-in-crime about it. "Now I lay myself down to sleep off the hard day, I pray the Lord will take my soul away. And, if I die before I wake up… Well, that'd suck, wouldn't it?"

His friend laughed.

He toyed with the words again and again, watching as kids came in and out of the orphanage, before being adopted at the young but old age of three. He smiled. He was so naïve back then. When he was in Japan, he'd sing in Russian, or those same few words of English. One day, he saw his brother singing them.

His brother was crouched over on the ground, looking brokenly at the dirt and grass floor. He then curled in a small ball on the dirt ground of the park and started singing those few verses in Russian. "Now as I lay myself down to sleep, I pray to the Lord my soul he should decide to keep. But if I die before I wake… I pray to the Lord my broken soul I hope he'll take."

He walked home slowly that day, waiting for the years to tick by. The he met Kai, the guy who changed his life. Kai challenged him; he rolled him; he showed him submission. He loved it. Every second of submission he loved. He could never get enough. That's why Hiro didn't like Kai. He knew Takao enjoyed the fact he didn't need to think, Kai would take care of him.

And he didn't like it.

So, after retiring international beyblading, Takao went back to trying to find normal. Kai had left; Rei had left; Max had left; Hilary had left; Kenny had left; Daichi was nowhere to be found. It hurt, but that was okay. Hiro walked away, ignoring the pain he felt along with his brother. Why? Because he could.

But Takao never quiet got over everything. No, he couldn't. Especially after falling in love with Kai—and when Kai left for good, his soul left for good. He was a shell. That was all there was to it. He was a shell. Because, while he didn't die before he was awakened, his soul the Lord had surely taken.

So, twirling in the periwinkle sundress someone thought would look good on him, he smiled sadly, sophistically—psychotically. He did look great, his hair loose and twirling and settling around his shoulders. He looked wonderful—even with all the ugly red marks on his arms.

"Now I lay me down to sleep," he sung, dropping to the bed, one arm hanging off the side. "I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake," blood gushed out of the arm he held off his bed, collecting on towels on the floor. "I pray the Lord my soul to take."

He closed his eyes.

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You know what he found funny on his funeral day? They got the girl from the orphanage to sing. And she sang those haunting, sad, slow lyrics perfectly. Then they went home, a hole in all their worlds. Takao was dead.

And the funniest thing was… Kai laid himself for sleep that night, and pray the Lord helped him through this hard time of loss.

And yet…

Before he would wake, his soul the Lord would certainly take.

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Pent: Okay, I saw this pray and was like, '…wow. I could make this something really depressing.' So I did. I find Christian prayers really depressing, for some reason. Anyway, R&R. 


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